The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-02-23
Among Grizzly Bears

My comrade, Red Pratt, and / were
hunting elk and deer along the base of
the great white quartz cliffs of the
Medicine Bow mountains. Pratt was
red-headed, red whiskered, red-eyed
and red-shirted. He was long, dang
ling mountaineer, trapper, prospector
and hunter Rough persons, who
affected brevity and frankness of
speech, said that he was the mightiest
liar in the whole Rocky Mountain re-
gion, where liars abound and frauds
and humbugs thrive. Other, and more
polite, persons spoke of him as the
mendacious one. But be this as it may
Pratt was a good comrade. He slirk
ed no camp work. And though he
was not good hunter, he did not re-
turn from unsuccessful hunts and
claim to have wounded numerous
game animals, nor did he send me to
hunt mythical bears, elk or deer which
he claimed to have seen.
Around the campfire, after supper
had been eaten, and we lay reclining
against logs and smoking sweet pipes
and lazily watching the play of the
sparks. Pratt was comrade beyond
price. Then he would take the brake
off his vivid imagination and riot in
hunting tales, which almost invariably
related to enormous bears. grizzly. sill
ver-tipped and black. Once only was
he guilty of inventing IN animal. the
beezlegum, which he located in myth
zeal mountain chain in Arizona, but /
strcnuously objected TO the introduce
ton of this animal within the charmed
circle of our campfire and resolutely
ruled ii ont, and in the most friendly
manner advised Pratt TO stick TO bears.
The evening on which / had kicked
the beczlegum away from orr camp
fire Pratt pretended TO suk for awhile.
and then he looked reproachfully at
me for few minutes. and said: 1.-The
beezlegum story is Il mighty interesting
story, young fellow. but you will never
hear 1t. No." he added, as he saw
that / had no intention to listen to it.
mo, not if you begged me on Bonded
knees, would not tell it. But l will
tell you about a bear once met" He
spoke rs though he had once been in
friendly and ia y intercourse with the
animal.
lone fall. some years ago." said
al alb fAx- ms tslra Mt
on Longs Peak, in Colorado. My camp
was near the edge of high wall which
overlooked n deep canon. This canon
was about l50yards across. On the OPP
posite wall, which was almost bare of
timber and not nearly so PERCEPTIONS as
the one ] was above. there was Il heavy
game trail which led up to the main
mountain. Along this trail many game
animals Travelled. One frosty morning !
got out of my blankets, 1T. my pipe.
and walked to the edge of the canon
wall TO smoke before breakfast. While
/ was sitting on rock j SAW a large
bear stumbling down the trail on the
opposite bluff. When he was almost
directly opposite me he stopped and
reared up against tree. then standing
upright he hung onto the tree with one
fore paw and reached up and struck
the bark with the claws of his free paw.
had while hunting seen several bears
do this queer thing. And i bad seen
sozens of the marks they had made by
scratching the trees. But / did not
know why they did 1t. After striking
The tree the bear dropped on all fours,
looked up at his mark, smiled, with
satisfaction. probably, and shambled
along the trail and out Of sight. Pres
emily / saw another and larger bear
walk slowly down the trail. When he
came to the tree which the previous
bear had scratched, he halted. looked
quickly mp at the scratch. tbHn. h. stood
upright ON his hind legs, and with a
free swinging blow he scratched the
bark at least foot higher than the
mark made by the other bea:. Then
he dropped to his four feet looked at
tentively at the marks for an instant.
and confidently staggered down the
trail.
II now understood what the bears
we're up TO. They we're scratching
their size and presumably lighting
weight on fhe trees. 20 that all other
bears eonli read H. Presently al|fiIe
/ 4. 10 ..uIn.| |.|1uI bear came INTO view.